The present invention relates to a showcase in which goods such as canned beverages or plastic-bottled beverages are laid on shelves for displaying the goods.
Heretofore, this type of showcase has been installed in a store such as a supermarket or a convenience store, and used for displaying and dispensing goods. Especially, as a hot dispensing showcase for warming and dispensing a canned beverage or a plastic-bottled beverage, for example, there is a showcase 100 shown in FIG. 9. The showcase 100 comprises a display chamber 102 whose periphery is surrounded with transparent glass 101. In an upper part of the display chamber 102, there are disposed a plurality of stages of shelves 103 each including a heater (not shown) on a lower surface thereof. In a lower part of the display chamber 102, there are disposed a plurality of stages of shelves 104 constituted of racks, and goods are displayed on these shelves 103, 104. A front surface and/or a rear surface of the display chamber 102 is openably closed by a door 105 made of transparent glass. The shelves 103, 104 are supported by shelf supports 106 vertically disposed in four corners of the display chamber 102.
Here, each of the shelves 103 bridged to the upper part of the display chamber 102 comprises: a metal plate 103A; and a frame member 103B disposed on a peripheral edge of the metal plate, and a shelf guard 107 fixed to the frame member 103B by spot welding or the like is disposed on a front edge of each shelf 103. Accordingly, the goods displayed on the shelves 103 are prevented from falling in advance.
On the other hand, the shelves 104 bridged to the lower part of the display chamber 102 comprise racks. As shown in FIG. 9, peripheral edges of the shelves are slightly bent upwards, and prevent the falling of the goods displayed on the shelves 104 in advance.
Moreover, in addition, a wire extending in a horizontal direction above a front end portion of each shelf plate is fixed to the shelf plate by the spot welding or the like. Accordingly, the falling of the goods displayed on the shelves is prevented in advance (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-196395).
However, since goods falling preventing means such as the shelf guard disposed on the conventional shelf is positioned only in a predetermined height from a shelf upper surface, there has been a problem that it is not possible to cope with goods height dimensions diversified nowadays. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare shelves provided with shelf guards in height dimensions corresponding to those of goods such as a 500 ml plastic-bottled beverage, a 350 ml plastic-bottled beverage, and a 50 ml bottled beverage for use in nutrition supplement drink. In this case, every time the beverages to be laid are changed, they have to be disadvantageously changed together with the shelves.
Therefore, it is proposed that the shelf guards be detachably inserted and fixed to the shelves, and the shelf guard having a height corresponding to the height dimension of the goods be selected and used. However, there is a problem that a plurality of shelf guards have to be prepared in order to adjust the heights. When the shelf guard is inserted and fixed to the shelf upper surface, a force applied to a shelf front part is concentrated on a portion into which the shelf guard is inserted. Therefore, especially strengths of the shelf guard and the shelf itself need to be enhanced, and the shelf itself might break as the case may be.